Turbine-engine.



Na. 785.014. V PATENTED MAR. 14(1905/ E. H. LU'DBMAN.

TURBINE ENGINE. APPLIOATION I'IL ED DEG. 16, 1903 1Q 13 flmesse s;

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Patented March 14, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN H. LUDEMAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

TURBINE-ENGINE..

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 785,014, dated March 14, 1905.

Application filed December 16, 1903. Serial No. 185,339.

To wllwhomit Wmy concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN H. LUDEMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing in New York city, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Turbine Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to and has for an object to provide an improvement in turbine-enginesa In the class of motor known as the turbins-engine the influence of steam is brought to bear upon a rotatable body, a plurality of working faces being produced upon the same to receive the fluid and which faces may be upon blades or vanes. In the present instance several of such faces are to be presented to the influence of the steam on each blade or vane, and for the purpose of, brevity, irrespective of technical accuracy, the working face will be called a bucket -that is, each several portions of the vane or blade or a portion of the rotatable body which receives an impulse from the steam will be called a bucketthe term vane used to mean the whole blade. In practice guide-vanes may be used to cooperate'with the vanes on the turbine or wheel, in which event each guide-vane will have a number of buckets.

It is frequently desirable in turbine-engines to utilize the expansion of an elastic fluid, which may in some instances be steam, at a number of successive stages, and it has also been found expedient to employ 'a charge of steam at each of the severalsuccessive stages of expansion upon the same movable body. This has been accomplished by passing the steam about the body in several ways. By my invention, assuming the vanes or buckets to be arranged in a ring and projecting radially from the wheel or drum, it will be by passing the steam at its several stages through several portions of the ring at different radial distances from the axis thereof and advancing during the several stages along such radial line. This will be accomplished by providing means whereby the first impact of the steam or the steam at the first stage will be received upon one bucket, will be passed through a chamber, and by a nozzle directed upon an advanced radial position of the vane at another bucket, and so in as many stages as it may be found practicable to employ. If the vanes are arranged upon the wheel in an axial line, of course then the steam will pass from stage to stage upon buckets located at different successive portions of the vanes upon such "axial line.

It is frequently desired to reverse the engine, particularly when employed in marine vessels. Thisinventionmay also be employed for such purpose by arranging the direction of. the Working faces of some of the buckets on the vanes, whereby steam may be directed into one or the other of the buckets, as may be desired, to direct the course or control the course of the wheel or drum. Steam may also be admitted into both buckets to modify the speed of the wheel.

In the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification a form of my invention is illustrated, wherein- Figure 1 is a side view of a section of a series of vanes. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of a portion of 'a wheel and the casing of the steamchambers and an elevation of a vane in position therein. Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrow, but with the casing removed. Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4 4: of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrow, and Fig. 5 shows a side view of an organization of buckets for reversing.

The present improvement contemplates the use of a turbine-wheel presenting two or more series of'working faces or buckets. The buckets of each series may be arranged in a ring and the rings be concentric and all the bucl ets may be upon the same radial plane.

In the illustration shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the vanes (designated in a general way by 7 are shown presenting three series of working faces or buckets, each vane having three buck' ets 8, opening or presenting working faces in the same direction. The vanes may have bases 9, which may be secured to the frame or the Wheel, as the case may be. The vanes are provided with heads 10, which may be so organized as to abut each other when the vanes are assembled in position, and between the respective buckets there are also shown diate heads are so distributed that an abutment is provided between the several buckets on a vane and an abutment is provided at the outer ends of. the end buckets. For convenience of description it will be assumed that the steam will enter the chamber 16 in some suitable manner, pass to the ring of vanes by the nozzle 17, impinging upon the first buckets or the buckets next the wheel. After its passage through the vanesit will enter the chamber 18, passing by the nozzle 19 to the vanes and impinging upon the second range of buckets and pass into the chamber 20, from which by the nozzle 21 it will again pass to the vanes impinging upon the third range of buckets or those farthest from the wheel and pass into the chamber 22, where it may be lead to another point of utilization or may be exhausted, as the case may be. Assuming that the vanes are upon the wheel and projecting radially therefrom, each successive stage will act upon the vanes at an advanced point on the radius of the wheel.

In Fig. 4 the section, as was before stated, is taken on the line 1 4 of Fig. 2 looking downwardly toward the direction the arrow points, and the nozzle 19 and chamber 20 are seen in full lines. The nozzle 17 and chamber 18 are shown in dotted-line position.

In Fig. 5 a number of vanes 30 are shown. each of which in the form illustrated has a base portion 31 and heads 32 and intermediate abutments 33 and as each having two buckets 34 and 35, one bucket facing in one direction and the other bucket in the other direction,

whereby steam admitted to the bucketsfor' instance, the uppermost bucketswill project the vanes in the direction of the arrow adjacent thereto and steam admitted into the lowermost buckets will project the vanes in the direction of the arrow ad jaccnt to such buckets, and steam admitted to both will have a neutralizing effect or governing eflect according to the relative force of the steam admitted at the different points. This is particularly useful to reverse the engine, which may be readily accomplished by changing the sternport from one series of buckets to the other, this affording a reversing-engine without the multiplication of the number of vanes and with but small increase of weight and size of the engine. In practice it may be found desirable to employ vanes with several buckets having their working faces directed in one direction and one bucket directed in the opposite direction. The nozzles leading thereto may be manually controlled or controlled by meansof some sort of suitable governing device, which, however, is not an object of the present invention and will not be dwelt upon, it being obvious, of course, that in practice various cooperating parts may be employed for the utilization of this invention and that changes may be made as practice demands.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. In a turbine-engine, the combination with a rotatable body, of a number of vanes carried thereby, each vane having a plurality of buckets, and nozzles to pass fluid at successive stages to the respective buckets.

2. In aturbine-engine, the combination with a turbine-wheel, of a series of vanes thereon occupying a radial position upon the perimeter of the Wheel, a series of buckets upon each vane arranged in progression upon the radial line of the wheel, a casing for the engine, and a series of chambers having nozzles therein corresponding to the position of progression of the buckets.

3. In aturbine-engine,the combination with a turbine-Wheel, of a number of vanes thereon occupying a radial position upon the perimeter of the wheel, a number of series of buckets upon the vanes arranged in progression upon the radial plane of the wheel, a casing for the engine, and a series of chambers having nozzles therein corresponding to the position of progression of the series of buckets.

4. As an article of manufacture, a vane for a turbine-engine having a number of buckets, heads or abutments at the ends of and between the several buckets, and channels through the sides of the intermediate heads.

5. In a turbine-engine, the combination with a casing having a number of steam passages and nozzles, of a turbine-head adjacent there- 'to and having a number of concentric series of working faces to receive in succession the impulse of the fluid and each series organized to travel past one of said nozzles.

6. A turbine-engine comprising a rotatable body, a series of vanes carried thereby, each vane having a number of buckets, heads between such buckets, heads at the ends of the outer buckets, channels through the intermediate heads, a casing through a port adjacent to the position of travel of the respective buckets, chambers leading from one point of delivery from the buckets to the next port, and guards therebetween to occupy the channels in said heads to prevent escape of steam.

7. A turbine-engine comprising a rotatable body, a number of vanes carried thereby, such vanes having anumber of series of buckets, each vane carrying a bucket from each of such series of buckets, heads upon each vane be tween such buckets, and heads at the ends of the outer buckets, channels through the intermediate heads, a casing having a port adjacent to the position of travel of each of the respective series of buckets, chambers leading from one point of delivery from the series to the next port, and guards therebetween to 00- cupy the channels in said heads to confine the steam.

8. A turbine-engine comprising a casing, a Wheel rotatable therein, the perimeter Whereof has a Working fit with the casing, a steamnozzle adjacent to each point of Working, a plurality of nozzles respectively at greater EDWIN H. LUDEMAN.

Witnesses:

GHAS..LYON RUssELL, FRED. J. DOLE. 

